Page 84 of Tightrope

“She thinks that the tendency may be in the bloodline and that it’s directly linked to the lie-detecting talent.”

“What do you mean?”

“My great-grandfather had the gift, they say. Family legend has it that it drove him mad. He took his own life. But he was a chemist. I looked into the old records and I think it’s more likely that he died when he accidentally poisoned himself in the course of a lab experiment. It’s Uncle Jake who really worries Mom. He also has a talent like mine. He always lived alone and he always drank too much, but things got worse when he came home from the Great War. He told me that he can only ignore the lies when he’s drunk. Mom won’t say it out loud but I know she’s afraid that one of these days he’ll take his own life.”

“She blames the lie-detecting talent for your great-grandfather’s and your uncle’s problems?”

“Yes.”

Amalie thought about that for a while.

“For what it’s worth I don’t think you’re in danger of going down your uncle’s or your great-grandfather’s path,” she said.

Matthias tightened his grip on her hand. “Why not?”

“For one thing, if you were headed in that direction I think you would have shown signs of severe depression and paranoia by now. It looks to me like you control your talent. It doesn’t control you.”

Matthias came to an abrupt halt, forcing her to stop, too. He turned her so that she faced him in the moonlight. His eyes were bottomless pools of dark energy.

“That’s how it feels to me,” he said. “But Uncle Jake and the stories about my great-grandfather have scared the hell out of my mother.”

“Understandable.”

“What makes you so sure you’re right about me?”

She smiled. “Flyer’s intuition.”

He caught her chin on the edge of his hand. “I told you, in my family, we take intuition seriously.”

“So, what would you do if you decided to settle down?” she asked.

“Promise you won’t think it’s crazy?”

“Dreams are never crazy. Impractical, sometimes. But not crazy.”

“I’ve been thinking of starting my own research and development company. I’d like to focus on communications devices. I think there’s a future in that line.”

She smiled at the enthusiasm and excitement in his voice.

“Matthias, that’s a wonderful plan,” she said. “Are you going to follow through and open your own engineering firm?”

“Do you really think it’s a good idea?”

“I love the idea. Are you hesitating because you’re afraid of disappointing your parents?”

“No, they’ll understand. The real problem is that my plan might not work. Starting up a new company is always risky. But in these uncertain times, it’s even more of a gamble.”

“You could spend your entire life waiting on certainty. The world is always an uncertain place. You should follow your dream, Matthias. Open that research and development company and see where it takes you.”

“And if it takes me off a financial cliff?”

“You’re an engineer.” Amalie smiled. “You’ll figure out how to build a ladder and climb back up to the top of the cliff.”

Matthias cradled her face between his palms. “That’s what you did, isn’t it? You rebuilt your life after that bastard Harding tried to kill you and the circus went out of business.”

“It’s what people like us do.”

He wrapped his hand around the back of her neck and pulled her close.